The Cleveland Health Department said that a 6 or 7-year-old girl died from E. coli last weekend in Cleveland.
The Health Department’s Matt Carroll said the girl’s death is potentially connected to the recent beef recall.
There are three other E. coli cases in the area that may also be affected by the recall and are currently under investigation.
An elderly dog in Atlanta, Georgia has passed on following consumption of Austin-brand peanut butter crackers recalled during the current Salmonella outbreak.
The outbreak, linked to Peanut Corp. of America’s peanut paste and related products, is responsible for at least seven (human) deaths, nearly 500 illnesses (over 100 of which have been hospitalized), and reported illness in pets.
Atlanta Dogs Examiner reports the dog, Ozzie, ate Austin brand peanut butter crackers a few days before their recall was announced.
Like some other pet owners, Bert Kanist of Atlanta gave his dogs human food as treats, and his dog Ozzie loved peanut butter crackers. He ate two packages of them, became ill the next day, and succumbed to the illness within 24 hours.
Now Mr. Kanist reports that he’s getting the run-around from both government agencies and from Kellogg’s, the owner of Austin brands. Because his dog’s body was cremated, a necropsy can’t be performed, but testing for the presence of salmonella is being done on peanut butter crackers from the same case as the one the suspect crackers were from.
Dog treats are included in the recall, and a full list of recalled products is available on the FDA website at: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/Salmonellatyph.html.
A 23-year-old graduate student died after participating in a steamed bun eating competition at Dayeh University in Changhua.
The Taipei Times reports the student could not stop vomiting and fell unconscious after he began to feel uncomfortable during the school’s eating competition on Wednesday to determine who could finish two steamed buns stuffed with egg and cheese in the fastest time.
School medical personnel immediately performed CPR on the student and an ambulance was called which rushed him to a nearby hospital, but the student was pronounced dead. The cause of death remains unclear, but doctors said that the student may have choked to death
Robert Cribb of the Toronto Star writes this morning that,
“In the end, Frances Clark’s unfocused gaze never moved as she desperately gasped for air.
“The listeria-tainted meat served to her in a Belleville-area hospital and again in a nursing home this summer was ravaging her 89-year-old body. She began losing breath altogether. Seizures came. And then, on Aug. 25, days after she allegedly ate Maple Leaf cold cuts from a Toronto plant, she died.
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“Details of Clark’s death and the deaths of two others are documented in affidavits filed in court this week as part of a planned class-action lawsuit against the food giant in six provinces, including Ontario. The graphic accounts written by family members of the deceased describe gradual deterioration from flu-like symptoms to fading consciousness and struggles for air.” …
"It was the most disturbing sight," recalls Clark’s daughter, Karen, who was at her bedside. "She was … gasping, like a fish out of water … Maple Leaf has to understand this is not acceptable. It hurts real families." …
"A second affidavit focuses on the case of Jeaninne Jacques, 69, who died July 28 after eating Maple Leaf ham. Her daughter, Linda Gosselin, said blood test results confirmed listeriosis was the cause of death. Tests filed in court confirm this.
"It is frustrating to think my mother passed away due to the negligence of Maple Leaf. … I believe (Maple Leaf) should be held accountable and their behaviour should change so that no one will suffer like this again."
Maple Leaf was given the OK to start selling deli meats from its Toronto plant yesterday.
A Chase County boy is one of two young Kansas children who died within the past several days from E. coli infection, although the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said the deaths are unrelated and were caused by different E. coli serotypes.
Funeral arrangements were being made today for Brant Burton, 4, who died Sunday in Wesley Regional Medical Center in Wichita.
An 18-month-old from Liberal, Tanner Strickland, reportedly died Wednesday in Wesley. Tanner’s brother remains in Wesley in stable condition with the same illness.
Fifty-two cases of E-coli were reported to KDHE in 2007; 33 were caused by E-coli O157:H7. Kansas’ three-year median for 2004-2006 was 48 cases. The highest rate of disease (8.8 per 100,000) was reported among children aged less than five years.
The Mayor of Liberal, Kansas, Joe Denoyer, said that 18-month-old Tanner Edgar Strickland died Wednesday at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita and his brother is listed in stable condition. The mayor says the disease is contained within the immediate family and there is no danger to the public.
There’s a lot of E. coli, the kind that sickens and kills, circulating around the U.S. In addition to the Locust Grove, OK, outbreak of E. coli O111 which has killed one and sickened 314, E. coli O157:H7 continues its rampage.
A three-year-old in Colorado died last Friday; another child who attended the same day-care has also tested positive but is expected to recover. The daycare is closed.
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In Ohio, a three-year-old girl died Sept. 13 of kidney failure at Akron Children’s Hospital after suffering from diarrhea, blood in her stool and vomiting, the hallmarks of shiga-toxin E. coli infection.
A Redmond family is praying for their 19-month-old son’s recovery after he was diagnosed with E. coli and flown to a children’s hospital in Portland.
A benefit was held for a three-year-old and his family after he spent a month in a Minneapolis Children’s Hospital, again with E. coli.
A fundraising BBQ for the Forest Ranch, California, volunteer firefighters has sickened at least 24, with two remaining in hospital, including a 6-year-old girl.
In Michigan, health officials have confirmed 24 cases of E. coli O157:H7 throughout the state, broadening their investigation from an initial cluster at Michigan State University.
The child pictured is five-year-old Mason Jones who died after eating a school lunch in Wales in Oct. 2005. These are the faces and stories of foodborne illness. And that’s just one week in the U.S.
Michael McCain, the president and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods made a strategic decision once his company decided to handle the growing listeria mess in Canada by saying this wasn’t about government, it was about his company: he effectively cut himself loose from bizarre to self-congratulatory to purely political messages from government and bureaucrats.
That decision looks real smart tonight.
CTV.ca is reporting that during a conference call with scientists, bureaucrats and political staff on Aug. 30, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said, after fretting about the political dangers of the Listeria scare, he quipped:
"This is like a death by a thousand cuts. Or should I say cold cuts."
Then when told of a death in Prince Edward Island, Ritz said, "Please tell me it’s (Liberal MP) Wayne Easter."
Easter is the Liberal agriculture critic and has called for Ritz’s resignation over his handling of the outbreak, which was linked to a Maple Leaf Foods meat processing plant north of Toronto.
Kory Teneycke, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office, said Ritz expressed regret over his remarks to Stephen Harper but there was no suggestion of resigning.
Ritz said,
"My comments were tasteless and completely inappropriate. I apologize unreservedly."
Canoe news reports that Ritz was "less contrite when he was asked about his comments after his flight from Saskatoon touched down at the Ottawa airport Wednesday afternoon". 
A bearded man with Ritz jostled with journalists as the agriculture minister beelined through the terminal to a waiting sedan. At one point the man grabbed a reporter’s recorder and jabbed at the off button.
For two minutes Ritz stared dead ahead as he was peppered with questions about the conference call. His only words were clipped.
"Not right now, guys," he said.
Then: "Get out of my face, please."
Public health officials in Quebec say a pregnant woman in the province has lost her baby, possibly because of listeriosis.
Officials are still awaiting test results to confirm whether the woman who lost her baby was infected with the bacteria, said Dr. Horatio Arruda, Quebec’s director of public health protection.
She didn’t lose the baby. It’s not like she misplaced the baby somewhere. The baby died because of listeria. Pregnant women should not eat a whole bunch of refrigerated ready-to-eat foods, but in the rush to promote raw milk cheese and food porn, those in charge forgot to remind those who are vulnerable of the risks.
Max Dubois, the owner of L’Échoppe des Fromages in St. Lambert, wants to know who will compensate him for the $40,000 worth of cheese inspectors seized and destroyed from his store on Saturday.
"Why could they not have organized a voluntary recall, as they do in France. Each cheese would have been sent away for analysis. We would have better been able to trace the spread of the bacteria. But now all the evidence has been destroyed. We’ll never know if it was spread through a distributor, or on the paper it was wrapped in, or in some other way."
Uh, France is no better. Here is the latest French cheese recall due to listeria.
Microbiologist Jacques Goulet, a cheese specialist in the food science department at Université Laval, says he, too, believes the government over-reacted.
"Listeria is present everywhere. But for most people, the risk posed by listeriosis is very low. Healthy people are rarely affected by the bacteria," he said, noting that the annual average of listeriosis cases in Quebec is about 50. (The public health department reported 63 cases in 2007 and 49 in 2006.).
Way to cite statistics. The people who got sick are real people who thought they were eating safe food.
The Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control said Tuesday that a two-year-old girl has died in Sweden after contracting the lethal enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) bacteria, although no source had been identified.
The girl had fallen ill during a visit to Mora in central Sweden on June 29 and had died a few days later at a hospital in Stockholm, the Dagens Nyheter daily reported.
While most strains of E. coli are harmless, EHEC bacteria can produce nausea, diarrhoea and potentially lethal kidney problems, particularly threatening people with weak immune systems such as the elderly and small children.